Toomey vs. Fetterman: A Tale of Two PA Gun Control Ads

Pennsylvania’s Republican Senator Pat Toomey is up for re-election this year, and the man from Lehigh Valley has been coming under attack by his putative opponents in Democrat Party, Braddock Mayor John Fetterman, for his opposition to gun control. Senator Toomey’s response to these charges appears to be to get in his opponents’ faces, running advertisements that boldly proclaim, in essence: “No way! I support gun control!” I wish I was making this up . . .

Ever since his dalliance with in 2013 with the ill-fated Manchin-Toomey bill that would have effectively banned private transfers of firearms throughout the nation, Senator Toomey has not been a favorite of Pennsylvanians who support the right to keep and bear arms. I have to admit that I am scratching my head over what the hell the Honorable Senator thinks he’s doing with this ad buy. In an anti-establishment year, Toomey — the former President of the Club for Growth PAC, who is being strongly supported by the Chamber of Commerce — is something of a consummate insider and, essentially, is doubling down on being the candidate of the establishment here. In the state where gun owners still have not forgotten that they were singled out by then-candidate Barack Obama for ridicule for bitterly clinging to their guns and religion, Toomey is basically running an ad touting the time he totally punked them.

Here’s another pro-gun control ad, from Braddock Mayor John Fetterman, who is running for the Democratic nomination for Senator:

Obviously, I reject the positions that both of these guys have taken. And while I am not here to praise Toomey, he is, at least, standing with us to oppose Obama’s Supreme Court nominee. Still, in this crazy political year, which ad do you think is going to be more effective? Which one do you think comes across as stronger? The ad with the effete whimpering anti-gun lady? Or the steelworker-looking dude with the revolver?

That’s not true yet, there is still a large distinction….but unfortunately it’s becoming smaller all the time.

Case in point, Romney was/is weak sauce, but would you rather have him as President right now or The Amazing Obongo, dancing into the night in Buenos Aires? GOP has a LOT of problems, but it’s not reflexively Anti-American on every issue like the democrats.

Not in Pennsylvania, so can’t I have a say, but I’d rather have Toomey to at least ensure that Chuck Shumer isn’t Senate Majority leader and running the SCOTUS hearings.

Compared to other states in this region of the country, we are very gun friendly. I think this is because the two large urban sh!tholes on either end of PA don’t dominate state gov’t, so rural “Pennsyltucky” in the middle holds some sway. That traditional, conservative, gun-owning culture cuts both ways, though. The Pennsyltucky Fudds don’t want us hunting on Sundays with semiautos…

Well, since the “gun safety” message seems to have an outsize appeal to simpering “moms” and the castrados that follow them around–maybe Toomey’s ad is in fact the more productive one. The other guy’s no-nonsense approach would seem to appeal to no-nonsense types–who might tend to realize that “common-sense gun control” is, in fact, nonsense.

“Ever since his dalliance with in 2013 with the ill-fated Manchin-Toomey bill that would have effectively banned private transfers of firearms throughout the nation, Senator Toomey has not been a favorite of Pennsylvanians who support the right to keep and bear arms. I have to admit that I am scratching my head over what the hell the Honorable Senator thinks he’s doing with this ad buy.”

The first sentence answers the second. Toomey knows that no POTG trust him, so he doesn’t care to appeal to them anymore.

PA is becoming more liberal overtime, he basically had to do something to appeal to people in urban areas, that is why he decided to support background checks and nothing else. I personally think it had more to do more with political survival in an increasingly liberal state. He is the only statewide rep that is against semi auto and magazine ban.